Saturday, June 13, 2015

Baghdad (AFP) - At least 11 Iraqi security personnel were killed Saturday in a quadruple suicide car bombing near Baiji that the Islamic State group said four of its foreign fighters carried out.

Police and army sources said the four car bombs were unleashed on security targets in Hajjaj, which lies on the road between Tikrit and Baiji in Salaheddin province, north of Baghdad.

Seven soldiers were killed as well as four members of the Popular Mobilisation force, an umbrella for mostly Shiite militias and volunteers that has been doing much of the heavy lifting in the fight against IS in Iraq.

At least 27 people were also wounded in the coordinated attack, which saw one of the four car bombs neutralised before it could reach its target, a police colonel said.

An army officer said the vehicles used were identical, brand new SUVs that looked like an official convoy.

Pictures released by IS show the black-clad suicide bombers each standing by one of four black Toyota Land Cruisers.

IS said in a statement that the bombers were a Kuwaiti, a Palestinian, a Briton and a German.

The picture of the German bomber, named Abu Ibrahim al-Almani, shows a red-haired blue-eyed man behind the wheel of his explosives-laden car, smiling and pointing his index finger to the sky.